LA GRANDE â La Grande School District officials did not have to look far to find Central Elementaryâs next principal.
The school district has named Monica West, centralâs assistant principal, to lead the school starting July 1.
âI am very excited about getting to work with Centralâs parents and staff,â she said.
West will succeed Suzy Mayes, who will retire at the end of June after serving as the schoolâs principal since the fall of 2014. West is completing her second year at Central as assistant principal.
West joined the LGSD after working for the Olympia School District in Washington for 25 years. She served as a teacher, instructional coach, middle school assistant principal and elementary school principal during her tenure in Olympia.
LA GRANDE â A familiar face at La Grande Middle School is set to become its next principal.
Chris Wagner, an assistant principal at La Grande Middle School the past three years, takes the helm as the schoolâs lead starting July 1.
âIâm honored and excited,â Wagner said. âThis is definitely where I want to be. The people who work here are incredible.â
Wagner will succeed Kyle McKinney, who will retire June 30 after serving as LMSâs principal for 14 years.
McKinney has served as an educator in the La Grande School District for almost 24 years. He earlier was LMSâs assistant principal for four years and was a math teacher for six years at La Grande High School.
LA GRANDE â La Grande School District Superintendent George Mendoza on Thursday, Jan. 21, had good news to share at an evening virtual town hall.
Mendoza announced that because of changing COVID-19 state metrics and other factors, all students in grades seven through 12 in the La Grande School District will be able to receive in-person instruction starting Jan. 27. This will mark the first time all LGSD students in middle and high school will be back in school since the state closed Oregon schools to in-person instruction in mid-March of 2020 because of the pandemic.
The move announced Thursday comes after the school district began making in-person instruction available to all students in kindergarten through sixth grade earlier this month.
LA GRANDE â Music teacher Carla Arnold is Central Elementary Schoolâs go-to person for many technology questions related to distance education.
The educator, who helps put on workshops on distance education technology, delights in fielding queries about the subject, just as she does teaching students online.
Make no mistake, Arnold would prefer to instruct students in person, but when she has to do it virtually, she embraces the task with a zeal befitting her glass-is-always-half-full perspective.
âThere are so many options for doing things (with distance education),â she said.
Arnold puts these options to the test each school day afternoon during meetings of the La Grande School Districtâs La Grande Fiddle Club, which is run in conjunction with the Grande Ronde Symphony. The clubâs members meet online to play the violin, cello, bass and other related instruments under the guidance of Arnold, Grande Ronde Symphony members Denise Hattan and Kathy Thim
COVE â The Cove School Districtâs search for a new principal is off to a promising start.
The school district began accepting applications Jan. 7 for the principal for grades seven through 12. So far, it has received two applications.
In addition, Cove School District Superintendent Earl Pettit said a number of other educators interested in applying are scheduling trips to Cove to see what its public schools and community are like. The deadline for submitting applications is March 8.
âWe are receiving a lot of response,â Pettit said. âThere is a lot of interest being expressed.â
Pettit said the school district hopes to have someone hired by late March or early April. The superintendent said the top quality the school district is looking for in a candidate is successful experience as a school administrator. He said this is particularly important in a small district such as Cove because it has no high school administrators anyone can mentor under as an